MILAN FASHION WEEK SPRING/SUMMER 2026: DAY 5
editors ELIANA CASA, MAREK BARTEK, MARIA MOTA and MARIE-PAULINE CESARI
DOLCE & GABBANA
review by MAREK BARTEK
all images DOLCE & GABBANA via vogue.com
You’ll probably read this line a million times, but I just couldn’t help myself: Today, the devil wore Dolce & Gabbana. In one of the most cinematic fashion week moments in recent memory, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci arrived dressed as Miranda Priestly and Nigel Kipling from The Devil Wears Prada. With the sequel already in production, their runway cameo couldn’t have been better timed. Simone Ashley, part of the new cast, watched from the second row. And when Streep turned her head to greet Anna Wintour across the runway (the real Miranda) fashion met fiction in a flashbulb-perfect collision.
Against that backdrop, Dolce & Gabbana staged a pajama party. It picked up where the men’s show in June left off, when the designers declared a taste for “no-fashion fashion… something more individual, more spontaneous.” After that presentation, Dolce noted, women were demanding pajamas of their own. Tonight, their wish was granted.
But of course, this being D&G, the pajamas were anything but plain. Striped cotton was embroidered with tiny flowers, traced with clusters of crystals, or styled over lacy black lingerie. Some looks swapped pj bottoms for sheer stockings, a wink to the house’s late ’80s shows, while others were topped with blouson bombers or brocade jackets “like a memory,” as Dolce put it.
For evening, cotton stripes gave way to black chiffon, often paired with the designers’ signature tuxedo jackets. Some models wore towering satin sandals, others fuzzy slippers. “This new generation doesn’t dress with too much styling,” Dolce said backstage. If Priestly turns up at Runway in pajamas next season, we’ll know why.
FERRAGAMO
review by MAREK BARTEK
Maximilian Davis’s return to Portrait Milano felt extremely symbolic. Three years ago, he debuted at the same palazzo while it was still under renovation. Now fully transformed into one of the city’s hotspots, the runway and its setting truly showed a parallel line of growth between Ferragamo family’s two prides.
His starting point this season was the 1920s. It was a decade when Salvatore Ferragamo built his Hollywood clientele before returning to Italy to scale his craft. Davis pulled from this era’s cultural crosscurrents: the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine Baker, and the exuberance of Africana references in fashion at the time. A 1925 image of silent-film actress Lola Todd wearing full leopard-print look including Ferragamo shoes became a touchstone, expanded into bold animal prints including fluid cuttlefish motifs.
Slip dresses in scalloped silk panels revealed lace beneath, fringed skirts and dresses swayed with movement, and all that amplified by stacks of wide bangles at the wrists. Accessories felt key to the message: belts cinched or draped to bridge menswear and womenswear, and shoes that included a lattice-pump revived from the archives and satin mules hand-beaded to echo the era’s love for ornament. Davis also played with gender codes, reworking ties as sashes and cummerbunds as structural details on dresses. Soft-shouldered tailoring in striped herringbone or coral-touched red carried references of zoot suiting, while long-line jackets added a new sense of ease to menswear.
Rather than pure nostalgia, Davis treated the past as raw material, and built new vision based off of it, one that feels fresh, exciting and strikingly relevant for 2026.
BOTTEGA VENETA
review by MAREK BARTEK
all images BOTTEGA VENETA provided by the brand
“I want to believe that I’ve succeeded because of my work and because of who I am, and not just because I’m a woman,” Louise Trotter said before her debut show at Bottega Veneta. After seeing what she’s delivered, I am grateful for feminism, for fighting for equal opportunities, for allowing us to see what Trotter is capable of, and equally I hope that seeing the reaction of everyone, she starts to believe that she’s got the job not because she’s a woman but because she’s just really damn good.
Bottega’s signature Intrecciato turned 50 this year, and Trotter wasted no time re-stating it as the language of the house: woven soft leather coats, a monumental floor-length cape made from 3mm strips of leather that took thousands of hours, and tubular Intrecciato stoles draped loosely over tailoring. She described Intrecciato as a metaphor: two strands woven together, stronger as one. That idea of duality carried through the collection, balancing structure with softness and weight with lightness.
Movement became the essential element of the collection. Skirts built from tiers of leather bands trailing behind like ribbons, pieces unfurled in shimmering fiberglass ombrés, and parachute silk gowns featuring an off-shoulder moment with lightness and the precision of and engineer. The showstoppers were, without a doubt, Trotter’s “glass sweaters” spun from recycled fiberglass in hot orange, icy silver, and crimson, catching the light like molten material mid-pour. Leather, always at the Bottega heart, was cut into trench coats, nipped jackets, or an airy pyjama-set that only revealed itself as leather up close.
I feel like the show was full of standouts but if I had to pick only a few, the honorary mentions should go to a supple suede shirt-and-trouser set with an Intrecciato scarf, giving us a Western meets pyjama kind of fantasy, and the beige top and blue-grey coat — both with Intrecciato base and fringe sticking out of them, creating a feathery effect. Outwear was styled with removable collars loosely flung around necks, adding a modular element to the styling, coats and jackets were cinched with oversized woven belts or left open over parachute silks. The colour palette of sun-baked browns, dense navy, bursts of citron and tomato red was balanced with Bottega’s signature neutrals, offering a wardrobe that felt subtle but incredibly luxurious at the same time.
Accessories gave us a quick history recap of Bottega’s finest. The Lauren clutch (immortalised in American Gigolo) was scaled up and paraded in new proportions, joined by a softened Knot and a reworked Cabat that doubled as a clutch. Newcomers included the Crafty Basket, an artisanal tour de force, and the elongated Framed Tote. Footwear echoed the mix of rigour and play: clogs with mirror-effect leather, inflated sneakers, and sling backs twisted into knotted heels.
The set of the show was stripped back with only glass-like colourful stools for guests, and a soundtrack by Steve McQueen mixing Nina Simone and David Bowie into a sonic duet (just like Intrecciato itself, metaphorically). It underlined Trotter’s point: different elements, woven together, create something stronger. Just when we thought Bottega Veneta cannot get any hotter, Ms Louise Trotter stepped up and proved us otherwise.
MSGM
review by DOMINIKA GŁOWACZ
all images MSGM provided by the brand
This season, MSGM swept us into a whirlwind of bold stripes, playful polka dots, and floral patterns, all interwoven with splashes of silver, baby pink, fiery red, and vibrant orange. These prints did not stop at garments alone; they also appeared on whimsical, ruffled, and sculptural shoes, which, without a doubt, can serve as powerful statement pieces in even the simplest, most basic outfits.
Layering emerged as one of the collection’s most essential elements. We saw boxers peeking out from under skirts, shirts casually thrown over T-shirts; it was all there. This clever play on proportions and textures amplified the artistic vision of the show, adding a sense of magic and spontaneity to every look. The result was a collection that felt both daring and youthful, yet refreshingly modern.
Massimo Giorgetti succeeded in bringing colour, fantasy, and energy into our often grey and uniform world, exactly as he promised he would. His work radiates a sense of youthful spirit and forward-thinking creativity, qualities that keep MSGM fresh and relevant across generations. The brand manages to capture both playfulness and sophistication, making it not only admired but also deeply desired by fashion lovers of all ages.